October 23, 2011 1:14 pm

Fans of field goals rejoice. Today’s Seahawks-Browns game was made for you.

Fans of offense – and of Seahawks’ victories – well, you’re going to have to wait until next week, at the earliest.

Cleveland’s 6-3 victory over the Hawks will definitely not be used as a how-to-guide for offenses. Both teams struggled to move the football, and it wasn’t even the fault of nasty Cleveland weather. The skies were clear, and the game was played in nice sunshine.

No matter. It was not pretty football.

The reasons, at least for the Seahawks, are many. Injuries definitely were a factor.

No quarterback Tarvaris Jackson to lead the offense, no tight end Zach Miller for backup Charlie Whitehurst to rely on, and no Marshawn Lynch, thanks to a lower back injury during warm-ups, for the running game.

Whitehurst did not help his case to be the quarterback full-time for the Seahawks. His numbers won’t impress anybody – 12 of 30 for 97 yards, a passer rating of 35.0 – and two first-half fumbles (one lost) and a second-half interception shows he’s not exactly careful with the football, something that head coach Pete Carroll requires of his QBs.

Fo the Seahawks, nine first downs and 137 total yards ain’t going to cut it.

I’ll let you guys discuss the quarterback issue while you wait for Eric to get back from the locker room and the postgame press conference. Other topics to consider:

• Officiating. The first-half roughing penalty? Ouch. But even worse was the block in the back on Leon Washington’s second-half punt return that wiped out a touchdown. That was POOR. The Browns defender appeared to fall down, yet the flag flew.

Sidney Rice was complaing about pass interference on almost every pattern, and he seemed to have a point on several occasions. And what was the deal with offensive PI on Doug Baldwin late in the game? Really?

• Defense. For the Seahawks, this was a big positive, and reason to think the season isn’t completely lost. The Browns seemed content to pound away with the run and dump the ball off with swing passes and short crossing patterns over the middle.

Yet, the Seahaws held tough, fighting for yards. Red Bryant is proving to be the MVP of the line, and his blocked field goal in the fourth quarter gave the Hawks the hope of making a rally.

• Drops. I counted at least five by the Seahawks. Too many for a team starting its backups at quarterback, tight end and tailback.

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About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Hey………are we sure that CW SHOULD be 2nd string? I’d venture that Portis should be made 2nd string. I live in Ohio………the Browns are AWFUL. Seattle NEVER, and I mean EVERrrrrr, should have lost this game. The O was bad….and we missed quite a few guy injured today………but the Browns SUCK. The fact that CW looked pathetic is why we lost this game. I’m listening to the Browns broadcast…….and they even said that a few calls were bad. Punt return for sure. Just a pathetic performance……and I rarely comment on here.

Oh by the way……..thanks Charlie Whitehurst.All I keep hearing from the brown’s broadcasts is how we gained 137 yards in the GAME. Not the 1st quarter……..or the 1st half…….the entiore freakin’ game. OMG…….CW is awful. The Browns DEF isn’t much better than their offense…….and they ‘held’ our supposed offense with CW to 137 yards. It is driving me crazy to hear that over and over by the browns people. CW sucks……..kick his butt back to 3rd string and see if that wakes him up. This game sure didn’t.

I was getting really upset with the officiating – there were some *really* bad calls; I can’t help but think that’s what finally had Bryant pop – that plus the D’s effort being wasted by the worst offensive game I’ve seen in a long, long time. I think we could have won the game if not for the officiating but maybe it’s better we didn’t so the stink of the offense doesn’t get covered up in any way.

This one hurts. Just when I started thinking 3-3 could happen, and possibly a 3 game win streak after Cincy this game happened. It feels like there were so many steps back we’re back at the starting line when it comes to offense.

And I thought the O-line actually protected him pretty well most of the time – he just can’t figure out what to do with the ball – and his accuracy sucked today. Rice could not have been more open on the one long play we connected on, and if CW doesn’t throw it so far to the sideline, he walks in for the TD. At least now we know more. Frustrating loss thought.

It is damn time for the stupid Whitehurst lovers to admit it. The guy is terrible as a starting QB. I mean just terrible. 97 yards passing? Also, why in the hell don’t the Hawks ever throw jump balls in the end zone to Rice or Williams? it makes NO sense to me. They both have good hands, are very tall and can box out the defenders with ease. I am starting to question our coaches and their play calling in the red zone…stupid and embarrasing game.

That game was FUGLY… Whitehurst is not a 1st string QB, if only we didn’t win those two other games we would be in the Luck sweepstakes. Going to be a long painful season. It is one thing if we play well and lose but when our offense looks like a JV squad and no hope of possibly resembling an NFL team that can move the ball.

*I should have said I question their play calling WHEN we get to the red one which is VERY VERY Rare…and frustrating…..Oh lord, now we get to hear how great Tebow is since the Broncos won in overtime. The guy sucked all day…..but a win is a win i guess, i just can’t stand Tebow as a football player. seems like a decent human being but that’s it…

I hope some IRS agents were watching this game because those officials need to be audited. Block in the back on the punt return, seriously? Offensive pass interference on Baldwin, seriously? The officiating was like the Super Bowl with Pittsburgh.

“I hope some IRS agents were watching this game because those officials need to be audited. Block in the back on the punt return, seriously? Offensive pass interference on Baldwin, seriously? The officiating was like the Super Bowl with Pittsburgh.”

1. Can we now STOP with the calls for CBJ? Pretty please! To be fair, he didn’t get much help out there but, he just made bad throw after bad throw. He looked EXTREMELY confused when they did a close up of his face after many plays. That’s two of us Charlie. I’m confused as to why anyone would be so enamored with you and want you as our starting QB. I lost count of how many times he threw to a receiver that was triple covered. Not double but, TRIPLE F*&^ING COVERED!!!!!!!!!
Oh, and can the CBJ contingent on here please come eat some crow. Looking at you StartCharlie!

2. The defense looked GREAT! Take it with a grain of salt as it was against Cleveland but, we also have a number of injuries in the secondary. Hopefully the WT3 injury is not serious. Hawthorne looked awesome and really mobile today. It looks like he is back close to 100%. Kam is a beast. Clemons provided some good pressure. Red is a MAN, although his RETARDED penalty at the end brings me to my last point.

3. Complain all you want about the refs, and believe me there was PLENTY to complain about today, but the Hawks need to look in the mirror. The refs aren’t wholly responsible for us being the 3rd most penalized team in the league. I understand that some of this comes with being a young team but, 3rd most is INEXCUSABLE! I like comPete’s positive nature but, you also have to be able to bring the hammer down when necessary. He needs to get Cable to get in these guys faces’ when they make elementary mental mistakes. Two false starts on one drive by the same guy is inexcusable. Learn the damn snap count. Jumping off-sides on a punt and giving the other team the ball back in inexcusable. Watch the f&^%ing ball you morons.

I think the officials just had a bad day. A really bad day. Their bad day was definitely tilted Cleveland’s way, but there were some bad calls/non calls against them too. No way that was a facemask in the RZ for example. They guy’s whole wrist/hand/thumb was in a cast. His hand wiped across the facemask but it was definitely not a penalty.

I have no problem with the PI call on Baldwin, but Rice was being held all day. Carey’s usually a pretty good ref and I can’t imagine the action on this game being worth anyone making payments to officials!

yeah the officiating was really awful too. i hate that i said this was a winnable game. you get like, one iota of confidence in them and they let you down big time. and to echo everyone else…whitehurst should be third string.

As for Charlie, I ain’t giving up on him yet. I will admit I’m not impressed with today’s effort. But I’ll stick with Charlie over TJ.

ZERO help from any of the receivers. Ben, we don’t need you to be dropping first downs when it matters. And by the way, Sydney Rice caught that ball on his inside shoulder. Don’t blame that non-TD on Charlie. But yeesh, terrible range on long throws. That’s all on him.

Before we all start hating, let’s remember who drove the field @ New York Giants last week.

StartCharlie, can I have some of what you’ve been smoking brotha??
“Don’t blame that non-TD on Charlie”?????????? Oh really. Who’s to blame then? Jesus? Allah? Buddah? I’m gonna go with Charlie personally, oh you know, since he was the one that threw that HORRIBLY INACCURATE DUCK. Rice may have caught the ball on his inside shoulder but, his momentum carried him out of bounds because CHARLIE threw it WAY TOO FAR towards the sideline when it was a BLOWN COVERAGE and if he had just thrown it to the numbers it would’ve been an EASY TD.

The Seahawks do one thing good and consistently, Lose and embarrass their fans. Why do they even keep Whitehurst? A high school QB is better than he’ll ever be. If Mr. Allen got rid of all the no talent players like him he would save enough to get a qb. Tarvaris is only a back up himself so why do we need 2 backup QBs and no starter or one good enough to be called a starter. Oh and the receivers, maybe he could afford some stickem for their hands. The looked more like they were playing volleyball that receiving. Maybe next game they should have the team switch places with the Sea Gals and we might be able to at least look like a football team.

StartCharlie your blind love for Whitehurst is amusing….check that touchdown play again against the Giants. Their D-backs gave up on that play as they thought it was a penalty on their team and the play was stopped. Charlie didn’t magically win the game. get over yourself. and I went to your StartCharlie website out of morbid curiosity..you and HawkyHann are absolutely LAME!

On a side note, why is it that they can’t review penalties? Are officials any less likely to blow a penalty call then a call on a catch, fumble, or TD? I don’t think so. If that punt return could’ve been reviewed it would’ve been easily overturned. Of course that penalty never should’ve been called in the first place. The ref just assumed that the penalty happened rather than actually seeing it. That was just BULLSHIT. They are supposed to actually WITNESS the penalty. Not just assume it based on a player falling down. The whole instant replay system is out of date and needs a complete overhaul so that it resembles something close to what they have in college.

fivecardstud, GO CRAWL BACK UNDER YOUR ROCK MORON! All they can do is lose and embarrass their fans? Like from 03-07 when they went to the playoffs every year and went to a super bowl??? Like that, you RETARD? What better options did they have in the off-season as far as QB’s go? Please enlighten us. This should be good!

Obviously Whitehurst did not do close to enough to win the game. However,I have been a Whitehurst guy all along and still am. But I have eyes and he did not play well at all. As noted his WR’s didn’t help at all really and I was rather disapointed with Rice’s effort on the INT. And that reminds me of how awesome Joe Haden is. Wow, he is good. But in closing I will say that at least the team wasn’t shutout (see Tjack against the Steelers)…

Frustrating game. CW did look lost and confused whenever they showed close-ups of his face. His accuracy was pathetic. TE McCoy caught like he had never seen a football in his life.
Hope TJack is back next game, Unger too as well as a real tight end.

T-Jack is our best option to win this year, yet he is still one of the worst starting QBs in the NFL.

Charlie has less starts than T-Jack, but really stunk it up today. There’s a reason he wasn’t given a chance by this coaching staff to unseat Matt last year when Hasselbeck had that brutal stretch late in the year and a QB as historically bad as Jackson was annoined the unquestioned starter coming into this year. Eric, Ryan, etc. weren’t fibbing when talking about how terrible Whitehurst looked in practices last year. Today was U-G-L-Y!

Sure, maybe Charlie wouldn’t be as bad at this stage in his career if he had as many starts under his belt as T-Jack from his MN days or if he would have gotten more help from his WRs in the form of dropped passes… but you know what? Dropped passes and things as such happen to all QBs, too.

All I know is that when you go into a season with Jackson, Whitehurst, and a stolen credit card fool who was undrafted… you’re telling the fans that you are passing on this season in preparation for 2012. That’s fine. At least it’s a plan I can accept (provided the QB position is addressed with Flynn on March 1 or via the draft in late April). However, it’s frustrating to go through at the time.

Anyone else just watch on the late game halftime stuff with Sharpe and Cower taking a huge jab at the ‘Hawks today? Small, but significant. Like Cower has anything to make fun of the Seahawks about — maybe he should be coaching and try to win a “real” Super Bowl for himself and his credibility. Because if he did actually earn one, it’d be his first and most of America with a brain knows it.

I can’t wait for this nightmare of a season to be over! Apologies for not posting anything for awhile, but even I can’t handle my own negativity and as we were told when we were kids… if you don’t have anything good to say, you should just keep your mouth (or typing fingers) shut.

Pabs.. never was for the Whitehurst trade. That was forced upon us. As was the pick up of T Jack. At the moment Tj has looked better than he did in preseason. But he was terrible then just as CW was today. So maybe CW rebounds if given another shot. For the record, I would rather throw Portis in and see how he does. Hey, could be the next Brady.

akmac, that reminds me of what I wanted to post earlier. McCoy is absolute GARBAGE!!!!!!!!!!!! Cannot block a bowel movement and catches about 50 % of the passes that hit him directly in his hands, if you’re lucky. SOOOOOO glad Morrah is back and hopefully Miller will be back next week. If he is, we should send McCoy packing and bring back Byrd. He may not be able to block but at least it seemed like he can catch the ball.

WilliamBryan, I cannot believe you could still be a CBJ backer after that “PERFORMANCE”! I agree that there were some drops that hurt him but, even if those had been caught his numbers would still be garbage. TJ got shut out versus the Stealers! Cleveland is nowhere near the Stealers. Not a fair comparison. Also, TJ had no Rice and a more inexperienced line in that game. Still his numbers were far better that game than the diarrhea CBJ just put up. I don’t think CBJ is quite as awful as he played today but, he is not the answer here or anywhere else. He will be gone after the year and thank god for that! Flynn as our starter with a top shelf backup in TJ behind him.

OK this game sucked….took my Fat Boy out for a ride, drank some Imperial Stouts and after all that, this game still sucked. They should have won this stinker. I won’t get into your Quarterback debate because we all know these three aren’t going to lead us to the promised land… So what have I come up with? The fall colors are great and we are back in the race for a quality Quarterback in the draft…so much for the glass is 1/2 full fool in Sandpoint…2012 here we come….

Natedog……I have been wondering the same thing. WHY can’t a bad call be reviewed and overturned when everyone watching the game knows it is a bad call? It is ridiculous and poor officiating is costing teams games. There should be a video official for every game that ensures the calls are correct.
Did you notice they didn’t have Mike Pierra comment on the phantom block in the back call?

I did notice that seahawk44. I think it’s the way it is because of “football purists” on the competition committee. IMO football purist is synonymous with moron. Why do they still have the official on the field go under a hood to make the call? They should have a separate replay official or 2 upstairs to make the calls. These refs should not be part of the crew that calls the game so they will be less inclined to worry about overturning calls. The system they have now is GARBAGE!!!!!!!!!!

If you had told me that the Seahawks would hold Cleveland to 6 points on the road, I would have been thrilled. I didn’t watch the whole game, so I’m just wondering if the Seahawks defense was good or the Cleveland offense was bad. A little of both, I imagine.

As for CW, I used to think that the jury was still out. But I think the jury just gave their verdict.

The Browns started slow on offense and McCoy is no Tom Brady but the Seahawks Defense was actually pretty solid. I was pretty impressed with the overall defensive play. If the Hawks still had Seneca Wallace they would have won by 3 touchdowns. That was absolutely the worse offensive performance that I have ever watched. Whitehurst was off target on most of his passes and the few times he hit his target there was typically double or triple coverage. His decision making was just as bad as his accuracy. It was horible.

Pete Carroll pretty much confirm that Walter Thurman is done for season.. So let see now it Richard Sherman & Brandon Bowner as our Starter oh joy, With Kenard Cox, Johnson, Jeron, Maragos, Chris, Maxwell, Byron.. All moves up the list with the addition on Roy Lewis when he ready to come off PUP.. Thought Seahawks should try out some veteran Cornback this week & signed a veteran as I think our two young CB/DB are going to be easy target to throw against.

Thought as for Charlie Whitehurst: I would cut him as for all his fans who wanted him to start, why give him another chance? It very obvious that the can’t play as QB in NFL, much suited for Arena Ball.. I say move Josh Portis up & bring in some veteran QB for try out this week.

hawkfan777, that was a good comment. i noticed that as well [re:accuracy + decisions] and i would also agree that that was easily one of the worst offensive performances by any team that i’ve ever witnessed.

I really haven’t posted here in a while, but always enjoyed reading the comments as well as the articles…until today. It would be great if people could keep there insecurities to themselves. We are all Seahawk fans here. This is a football blog…not a “your mom” blog. Grow up.

Let’s all parrot the same stupid sentiment. But I’m the one that needs to grow up? Ignore the posts you don’t like. It’s rather easy. If you were ADULTS you could easily do that instead of trying to censor everybody else. If you had actually taken the time to READ the MORONIC POSTS and POSTER, excile, that I was RESPONDING TO, then you would understand my posts. Try actually reading before you comment next time. He’s the one that attacks people personally when they disagree with the ILLITERATE and INCOHERENT diarrhea he posts on here. That’s why I attack him. You may be right that I should just ignore him because, he is probably just a troll that wants attention. That’s different from attacking me because you’re scared or offended by the language I use against him. Talk about needing to GROW UP. If you’re offended or embarrassed by another persons’ language than you are just a BABY! They’re just words. They won’t hurt you. Nobody comments if people use WTF of f*&^king even though we all know what they mean. Just grow up and save your pseudo-morality for someone who cares. I try to post my honest and thought out opinions on here. You might have an argument if ALL I did was attack people. And I only personally attack people that have done so to me first, like excile. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

We need an offensive co ordinator that plays the strength of our players. Not one that hopes his idiot game planning ‘will work today’.
Did Bevell game plan that offense to justify the terrible mistake he made by bringing TJAK in here? OR IS HE JUST THAT STUPID. Terrible.
17 minutes of possession. Leon Washington averaged nearly 7 yards a carry on his -what-6 carries? 6? SIX? When Whitehurst couldn’t find the reciever within 6-10 yards of his ability to throw the balls?
Terrible. Bevell!! Go back to Minnesota…although they already know how bad you are. Schneider? Jeez pal…TJAK and Bevell? Are you on ego drugs?

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